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Jaycee Dugard's memoir 'A Stolen Life' shoots to No. 1 on Amazon

July 11, 2011 | 12:16
am

After a primetime interview with Diane Sawyer Sunday night, Jaycee Dugard's memoir "A Stolen Life" shot to the No. 1 bestseller spot on Amazon. Dugard, who spent an astonishing 18 years in captivity after being kidnapped by convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, came across as centered and thoughtful during the interview.

Her strong presence during the ABC interview may have been what compelled readers to pre-order her book. "A Stolen Life: A Memoir," which officially goes on sale Tuesday, has only spent nine days out of the last 100 in Amazon's top 100, where it is now a step above George R.R. Martin's much-anticipated "A Dance with Dragons."

Dugard was 11 years old when she was kidnapped in 1991 by Garrido and his wife Nancy and was kept a secret prisoner in their backyard until she was found in 2009. During that time, she lived in makeshift shelters; was bound and raped; and gave birth in the backyard to two daughters.

Garrido was convicted of rape and kidnapping in the late 1970s, and was on parole when he kidnapped Dugard. The ABC News story made clear that officials had dozens of opportunities to discover Dugard but had failed. Dugard and her family received a $20 million settlement from the state after filing a claim that said authorities failed to properly supervise Garrido.

In the interview, Dugard explained that early on her only companion was a spider she called "Bianca."

"I would live in my own world," Dugard told Sawyer. "Physical abuse was all I knew."

Later, when her daughter was born, Dugard said, "she was beautiful. ...I felt like I wasn't alone anymore. I knew I could never let anything happen to her."

Dugard had only a fifth grade education when she was kidnapped, but she tried to create a school for her children. She also hid away pages on which she wrote a diary.